Resign (7)

Despite brutal questioning by a Senate select committee, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday stood by his comments that the National Assembly’s budget for overhead is 25.4% of the nation’s total..

Mr Sanusi withstood strong attempts to browbeat him into admitting that the figures were at least lower than that, or that he was misquoted by the media.

The public hearing convened by the Senate followed newspaper publications quoting the Central Bank governor as saying that the nation spends one-quarter of its funds on running the National Assembly, and a subsequent publication quoting the finance minster as saying he would cut the budgetary allocation to the assembly.

Mr Sanusi had at a lecture delivered at the eighth convocation of the Igbinedion University , Okada, Edo State, said 25% of the nation’s resources are spent on the lawmakers. This annoyed the Senators who ordered him to appear before them and defend his statement.

The Central Bank governor appeared on Wednesday before the Senate committee alongside the finance minister, Olusegun Aganga. However, unlike the finance minister who quickly dissociated himself from the statement that he intended cutting allocation to the assembly, Mr. Sanusi admitted saying that 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost is spent on the National Assembly...

He held his grounds, backing his statements with records from other national dailies which quoted him correctly, and with statistics from the budget office.

Mr. Aganga who later assumed the role of an umpire told the Senators that the CBN governor’s figures were correct although they may appear wrong in another context.

The minister argued that overhead cost figures which include Service Wide Votes (money spent on maintenance of government facilities), are as legitimate those which do not include the votes.

Rage

Evidently angry, Iyiola Omisore (PDP Osun State) who led the Senate panel alleged that the CBN governor had chosen to deliberately incite Nigerians against the Assembly. He asked Mr. Aganga to state categorically whether Mr. Sanusi’s statement was right or wrong. The minister again said the statement depends on context or the way one chooses to use statistics.

Members of the Senate panel made up of four different committees could not hold back their rage against the unyielding CBN governor and frequently compared him to the more amenable finance minister, trying to coax him into some form of apology.

The Senators made no effort to hide their bias and blatantly refused to give any room to the Central Bank governor, to defend his figures and the context in which they were used.

Mr. Omisore pointedly told the harassed CBN governor at one point that the committee was not prepared to listen to him and that he must direct his responses through the finance minister. Mr Sanusi, however, occasionally barged in to make the point that his figures were right and that he got them from the director of budget’s office.

No apology

He said he would only apologise if the figures from the budget office were wrong. He insisted that, “Total Federal Government Overhead is over N500 billion and the Overhead of the National Assembly is N136.2 billion. This is exactly 25.1 per cent of total government overhead. I am quoting from the figure I got from the Budget Office. If you like, you can invite the Director-General of the Budget Office.’’ When told by Mr. Omisore, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, that the figure was wrong following a clarification by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Sanusi replied: “I don’t know where the minister got his figures.” To the calls on him to apologise, he said, “By my nature, if I do not believe that I am wrong, I do not apologise.” He urged the Senators to examine the context under which he made his statement which was actually in a lecture about factors that fuel inflationary trends.

Staking his job

After hours of fruitless attempts to get the CBN governor to admit wrongdoing and apologise to the Senators, the lawmakers seemed to deviate from the matter and begin to question the character of the governor and the annual budget of the CBN.

“We really need to be sure that the CBN governor has the character to stay in that office,” Heineken Lokpobiri (PDP Bayelsa State) said.

Other Senators took turns to tongue lash the CBN governor. They accused him of speaking too much and asked him questions like “do you enjoy your job? Do you feel like quitting?’’ And if he thinks democracy is too expensive.

“My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit,” Mr Sanusi replied before a cheering crowd of spectators.

The unwavering Central Bank governor told the Senators that the survival of democracy is dependent on allowing people the freedom to speak. He added that he had always been involved in the fight for democracy way back to the time of June 12 and that even if the military takes over now, he will still fight them off.

The issue remained unresolved as both sides disagreed with each other’s figures. However, Mr. Omisore gave the CBN governor a stern warning not to use such figures in comments about the National Assembly anymore.

Mr. Sanusi is also expected to appear before the entire House of Representatives today to defend his statement.

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Northern Faction Demands GJ to resign

On Friday 1st October 2010 at about 11 a.m., the Federal Capital City of Abuja came under attack by people who identified themselves as members of Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND). As Nigeria and Nigerians celebrated the nation's 50th Independence Anniversary, two powerful bombs were detonated within minutes of each other, few metres away from Eagle Square, venue of the celebration, killing innocent people in cold blood. Official government figures put the casualties at twelve people dead and seventeen injured. Unofficial accounts place the death toll at eighteen while over sixty people were said to be injured.

The attacks took place while the Heads of State and Government of several African and other countries were seated in Eagle Square to celebrate our 50th Independence Anniversary with us and while the attention of the whole world was upon us. It was clearly meant to embarrass the nation and its people and to give the rest of the world the false impression that Nigeria is on the verge of a violent political conflagration ahead of the general elections of 2011. It was also meant to intimidate the international community that Niger Delta criminal gangs have the capability to influence political outcomes beyond their traditional area of influence.

It is regrettable that these bombs were allowed to go off given that the nation's security organizations had admitted that they were forewarned by foreign intelligence organizations and by the bombers themselves. It is also unfortunate that the bombings followed recent changes in the leadership of the nation's first line of defense - the armed forces, the police force and State Security Service.

We in the Northern Political Leaders Forum condemn in the strongest possible terms this callous and barbaric act of cruelty and cowardice, perpetrated by a group of people steeped in the culture of terrorism and unbridled violence. We condemn all those who give them shelter or comfort under any guise and call on all law-abiding and peace loving Nigerians to raise their collective voice against this violent group, its method and motive. We call on the Federal Government and the nation's law enforcement agencies to pursue these common criminals masquerading as militants with all the resources at their disposal and bring each and every one of them to justice for the crime of murder and for taking arms against the State.

We seize this opportunity to offer our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this dastardly act and pray for the repose of the souls of their loved ones. We call on the Federal Government to pay compensation to the families of the victims for its failure to prevent this attack in spite of multiple warnings, including several from the perpetrators themselves. We pray for the quick recovery of the injured and call on the Federal Government to, in addition to settling their medical bills, offer them the services of expert counseling in order to assist them recover psychologically from this harrowing ordeal. May this kind of tragedy never be allowed to happen to this country again.

The tragedy of October 1st has opened yet another ugly chapter in the history of our nation whereby, for the first time, innocent civilians and the nation's capital were simultaneously targeted and bombed by a notoriously violent terrorist group. The implications of this act to the security, peace and stability of the Nigerian State are so grave that no matter the motive(s) of the bombers, they must be hunted down, apprehended and punished for their dastardly act. If they are allowed to go unpunished, as they have been in the past, Nigeria and Nigerians may never see peace again as the specter of kidnapping, which emanated from the activities of criminal gangs in the Niger Delta continue to illustrate.

It is on record that the Amnesty Program of President Umaru 'Yar'adua included a definite deadline within which ALL Niger Delta insurgents were to lay down their arms. Any individual or group that failed to take advantage of the Amnesty Program must no longer be allowed to hide behind the guise of militant agitation to take innocent lives and must be considered and classified as terrorist. There is no longer room for semantics over Niger Delta militants and terrorists.

That is why it came as a rude shock to the nation when President Goodluck Jonathan declared, only hours after the Abuja bombs that killed and maimed innocent civilians that MEND, the criminal group that took responsibility for the bombings, was not to blame. Not only that, the President was also quoted as saying that he knew who the bombers were and that they were terrorists, not MEND, a distinction which reveals where the President's sympathies lie. In a curious reversal of roles, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces who swore to an oath to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and to

protect the lives and property of its citizens has found himself, instead, going the extra mile to absolve from culpability, the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the attacks. Even more disturbing was the declaration by the President, only hours into the bombing investigations, that he knew who the attackers were. Is President Goodluck Jonathan a closet member of MEND or is there more to the President's curious posture than meets the eye?

Just before this statement was due to be released to the media, the answer to the second question began to emerge. The Department of State Security finally succumbed to political pressure from the President himself and followed in the footsteps of the EFCC to target the President’s political opponents. On Monday October 5th, we received news that High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman of DAAR Communications and Director-General of General Ibrahim Babangida's Presidential Campaign Organization, has been arrested by the SSS in connection with the bombings of October 1st. Last night NTA's 9 O’clock news was interrupted, for effect, to broadcast the purported connection between the High Chief, General Babangida's presidential campaign and the bombers in a desperate attempt to validate President Jonathan's hasty investigations and prove his predetermined theory right.

Only this morning, Henry Okah, a leader of MEND, told Al Jazeerah Television that he was approached by the Nigerian Government to prevail on MEND to retract its statement that it was responsible for the attack so that President Jonathan may implicate Northerners who are opposing his presidential ambition in the unfortunate bombing incident. This is another confirmation of our fears that President Jonathan will employ extra-judicial means in pursuit of his ill-advised ambition to contest the 2011 election.

But Nigerians are not fools. They know that MEND does not need anyone's prompting, least of all a person they declared persona non grata only a few weeks ago, to perpetrate its dastardly act. Clearly, the President needs a better, more creative alibi to intimidate and victimize his opponents. We have earlier warned Nigerians to be vigilant; that the targeting of selected state governors by the EFCC was part of a grand design to intimidate the President's opponents and make them submit to his desperate agenda to run for President in 2011. We have been vindicated, alas, at the cost of eighteen innocent citizen's lives.

We would like to state, for the umpteenth time, that President Goodluck Jonathan's desperation to be President again in 2011 can only take Nigeria back to the dark days of President Olusegun Obasanjo's Third Term with all its attendant instability and the wasting of innocent civilians’ lives. Now that the President has proven that he is incapable of leading the nation justly and fairly and that he is desperate enough to want to hang mass murder around the neck of unnamed Northerners to achieve his second term, we as citizens of this country have totally lost confidence in his leadership and hereby call on him to immediately resign. If he fails to do so by the end of the week, we call on the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against him with immediate effect. We state, without any equivocation that, as Northerners and as citizens of this country, we no longer feel safe and secure under his leadership..


Signed by:

Adamu Ciroma

Madakin Fika
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Barring any last minute changes, Lt. Gen. Aliyu Gusau rtd, will soon resign his position as National Security Adviser. His exit is to allow him prepare for his presidential campaign. His replacement is not yet known, but presidency sources reveals


that it will certainly not be Sunday Are, the deputy National Security Adviser.

Gasau, one of the most celebrated spymaster, is relying on no other requisite skill to rule Nigeria other than a prophecy given to him and three other friends about two decades ago by an Islamic cleric that all of them would rule country one after the other.

Sources close to the general revealed that an imam had told Gasau that himself, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, Gen Sani Abacha and Gen Ibrahim Babangida would head the Nigeria government in succession. For his three friends the prophecy came true as predicted. But the presidency thus far has eluded the spymaster.

His last attempt at the presidency was in 2007, when President Obasanjo sent Nuhu Ribadu led EFCC after major contender thus paving way for only pretenders..

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Members of the House of Representatives cutting across the six geographical zones yesterday gave the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, seven days to resign, or be disgraced out of office.

The representatives who call themselves the ‘progressives,' said at a press conference in Abuja that Mr Bankole's leadership is corrupt, inept and high-handed. Armed with what they claimed were incriminating documents, the lawmakers said Mr Bankole's leadership led to an unprecedented rift between both arms of the National Assembly and brought the House to disrepute.

Members of the group include: Dino Melaye (PDP, Kogi); George Daika (PDP, Plateau); Bitrus Kaze (PDP, Plateau); Austin Nwachukwu (PDP, Imo); Ehiogie West Idahosa, Anas Adamu (PDP, Jigawa); and Independence Ogunewe (PDP, Imo). Others are Solomon Awhinawhi (PDP, Delta); Ralph Okeke (PDP, Anambra); Darlington Okereke (PDP, Ebonyi); and Asita Honourable (PDP, Rivers).

A litany of complaints

"We hereby, therefore, in strong terms call on Bankole to resign immediately as the speaker of the representatives within 7 days," said Mr Melaye, who spoke for the group. "We are asking him to resign for the following reasons: one, corruption in leadership; two, because of his leadership style, which today is responsible for the rift, disagreement, and disharmony between the two brothers in the National Assembly, the Senate and the Reps. The relationship between the two has never been this bad.

Three, we are also asking him to resign because of his high handedness, disrespect for members; four, his frequent breach of the rules of the House; five, his sweeping and unsubstantiated comments capable of causing disaffection among the various arms of government."

He said the speaker had once openly accused civil servants and the civil service of gross corruption, but failed to substantiate the claims when the then head of service, Ama Pepple, challenged him on the allegations.

"And I want to say that, failure to comply with our call in the interest of the Nigeria and Nigerians, especially the masses of this country, this group has overwhelming evidence, information, everything you see here, they are incriminating records that we will publish, give to you the media, and assure you in seven days, we are going to write a petition that every member including the ones on recess will sign, physically, personally and we will send it to the EFCC, the ICPC, the NSA, the SSS and indeed, the headquarters of his political party."

Bad publicity

Mr Melaye, said under the leadership of Mr Bankole, the sterling qualities, which the House exhibited since 1999, have been lost, stressing that the public perception of the lower chamber has declined.

"We are here this afternoon to unequivocally say without fear of favour, that the House of Representatives, you read about in 1999; the House of Representatives that West Idahosa was a member of; the House of Representatives in 2000; the House of Representatives with its sterling qualities exhibited during (Ghali) Na'Abba; the House of Representatives that was laboriously built by (Aminu) Masari, is not the same today," he said.

"The public perception of the House has ingloriously declined. We used to be the pacesetters of legislative practice in this country, but it is obvious that we have been overtaken because of the ineptitude of leadership (and) because of all these negative manifestations, the House under Bankole has nose-dived and has lost its earned positive reputation."

No child play

Asked if the group will not, like in the past, back down on its demand that Mr Bankole should go, Mr Melaye said, "This is no child play. We have resolved to clean our House. We have resolved and are determined that he who comes to equity must come with cleans hands. And we have resolved that these evidence will be given to each of you and we are ready to defend it anywhere and anytime.

This is not a secret presentation. We are very, very sure of the facts. These documents are incontrovertible."

He said even though Mr Bankole will as usual say that the documents are fake, they intend to challenge him to produce the original.

Collaborating Mr Melaye's claims, Mr Idahosa (PDP Edo state), said the House has never had it so bad in the last 10 years..

"Many of you know that when we talk about the history of the House, I have the privilege of writing the rules together with my colleagues in 1999," he said. "And thereafter, I have served (Salisu) Buhari, Na'Abba, Masari (Patricia) Etteh, and I will say, I have the misfortune of serving in this era. We have never had it so bad. We have never had such a legislative tyranny as we do have now. We have never in this House turned our Ethics and Privileges Committee into a hunting machine of fellow members.''

‘Ostrich display'

In a swift reaction to the demand for Mr Bankole's resignation, the House leadership said Mr Melaye and his group misled the perceptive public with their proverbial ‘ostrich display' by masquerading selfish tendencies for public interest.

"Their activities could best be a swan song but they are advised to avail themselves with the allowances of House rules and extant provisions of the relevant statues," said House spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, in the statement. "The present leadership is a creature and creation of the generality of the House and the prevalent synergy culminating in the successful constitution review vindicates the acceptability of the leadership. Those ‘progressives' should vacate their theatre or be absolved and come to join other discernible members to complement the current legislative engagements for executive action."

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LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a dramatic bid to keep his beleaguered Labour Party in power after it was punished in a national election, announcing Monday he will resign by September at the latest in hopes the third-place Liberal Democrats will join his party in a coalition government.capt.dce8aad8e27c4546a3014537e71bd51e-dce8aad8e27c4546a3014537e71bd51e-0.jpg?x=213&y=331&xc=1&yc=1&wc=263&hc=409&q=85&sig=gJ5Ls7YNYy3kPOlNdZqNHg--

Brown's startling news conference came as the Conservatives, who won the most seats in Thursday's election but not a majority in Parliament, were already holding talks with the Liberal Democrats.

Lawmakers said those negotiations stalled earlier Monday over differences on key issues including reform of the voting system, education, and changes to the tax system.

The Liberal Democrats want Britain's voting system to be changed so that seats in Parliament more accurately reflect a party's percentage of the vote — demand that most Conservatives adamantely reject.

Brown said the Labour Party, which came a distant second to the Conservatives, would begin a leadership contest to replace him while he focused on talks aimed at breaking Britain's election deadlock.

"As leader of my party I must accept that as a judgment on me," Brown said, referring to Labour's poor showing in the election.

In a statement outside his office at 10 Downing Street, Brown said Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had asked to begin formal coalition talks with the Labour Party and the two could form a center-left alliance. Clegg had previously said Brown's departure would likely be a condition of any deal.

"There is a progressive majority in Britain, and I believe it could be in the interests of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government," Brown said..

Conservative leader David Cameron made no immediate comment on Brown's possibly game-changing move.

Clegg said the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives had "some very constructive talks ... and made a great deal of progress. But we haven't yet reached a comprehensive partnership agreement" after four days.

He said it was "the right thing and the responsible thing to open talks" with Labour.

Cameron's center-right Conservatives won 306 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, 20 short of a majority. Brown's center-left Labour won 258 and the center-left Liberal Democrats took 57 seats. Other smaller parties took the rest.

Brown said he hoped a new Labour leader would be appointed at the party's annual convention in September. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Education Secretary Ed Balls will likely be leading contenders to succeed Brown as party leader.

The pound fell nearly 1.5 cents against the dollar after Brown's statement, trading at $1.4866 late Monday, reflecting some fear of Labour's continued presence in the government.

Britain has a record 153 billion-pound ($236 billion) deficit that the Conservatives have pledged to tackle faster than Labour. But Brown said his focus during his remaining time in office would be ensuring economic recovery.

Cameron's party was to meet later Monday and the Liberal Democrats indicated they too could gather again.

Clegg clearly was facing a tough choice: Trying to overcome ideological incompatibility to broker a deal with Cameron and the Conservatives or propping up Brown's defeated Labour Party.

The Conservative Party strongly opposes voting reform, as it would likely mean fewer seats for Britain's two main parties — the Conservatives and Labour — and would banish the Conservatives to the political wilderness for years to come.

Yet in the last election, Clegg's party earned 23 percent of the vote but got only 9 percent of the seats in Parliament.

Brown's announcement signals an end to a political career marked by great promise, considerable achievement and ultimate disappointment.

He spent a decade as Prime Minister Tony Blair's right-hand money man, but craved the top job himself. When he finally got it in June 2007, Brown faced economic crisis, a divided party, public disgust with politicians — and finally defeat in last week's election.

It was Brown's fatal political misfortune to follow the charismatic Blair. Brown was brooding and awkward by comparison, and a recent run-in with a voter — whom he called a "bigoted woman" — showed how much he lacked a common touch. But behind closed doors, Brown, 59, was often described as warm and agreeable.

Friends also say the son of a Church of Scotland minister is dogged, determined and fiercely loyal to Labour — a trait that prompted him to offer his resignation Monday so that his party had a chance at staying in office.

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The Governor’s Forum, in a meeting with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, said it does not want President Umaru Yar’Adua to resign.

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The meeting, which held at the Aguda House, the residence of the Acting President, lasted for almost two hours, with all 36 state governors in attendance.

As they trooped into Mr Jonathan’s residence from the venue of an earlier meeting of the forum, their faces were bright and the banters were light, indicating that all was well. But when the governors left after their meeting with Mr Jonathan, they all looked grim, and a source close to one of the governors said the meeting had not been devoid of argument.

While briefing newsmen after the closed door meeting, the Akwa Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, said the group did not discuss the hundred days of Mr Yar’adua’s absence and that the issue of his resignation was also not touched upon.

He said: “We did not discuss that. We noted that the president has returned to the country and we noted the need for him to recuperate and get better soon, before he can think of assuming duty. For us the issue of his resignation is not an option for now. For us what is important is for us to be compassionate, to be sympathetic and to realise that anybody, no matter highly placed, even if you are a Christian and you are a Pope can get ill. Thank God he is back now and he is recuperating and we are satisfied that recovery is on the way. We are praying for him.”

Governor of Kwara State and head of the Forum, Bukola Saraki also said “We congratulated the Acting President towards stabilizing the polity of the country at the moment and we also in return pledged our support to the Acting President during this trying time. We encouraged him and said he is doing a good job and he has the full support of the governor’s forum in this exercise.”

Akunyili went overboard

Mr Saraki said Mr Jonathan gave reasons why he set up the presidential advisory council. He, “educated us on a number of issues, for example the advisory council that was set up and the reason behind it and other things,” Mr Saraki said. “By and large, we emphasized the need for the government to work very hard to ensure that we all play our role to provide leadership at this crucial time and to talk to members of government to ensure that the comments made are well guided. At the end of the day we acknowledged what he is doing and we appreciated it and the 36 governors will continue to support the Acting President for this country to move forward.

“We have expressed that we are happy to see that the president is back in the country, we have also said that we should separate the two issues. The return of the president to the country is an indication that there is progress in his recovery process and that does not deviate at all from any decision we took as a forum, where we all decided that a political solution to provide a resolution for Mr. Vice President to act as the Acting president and that is still the position.

Mr. Vice President acting as the president is still running this country and we are wishing the president speedy recovery. Our resolution was taken not because Mr. President was out of the country, but because he was ill and that has not changed.”

Bayelsa State governor, Timipre Sylva however condemned the public statements making the rounds by public office holders. He picked issues with Information Minister, Dora Akunyili’s whom he said “went overboard” with her statements.

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The rivalry between Nigeria`s richest duo, Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola has taken a turn for the worse with pressure mounting on Dangote to resign his post as vice chairman of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) over perceived conflict of interests in the unfolding financial saga that has seen the SEC suspend and fined Nova Finances Securities owned by Eugene Anenih, a Dangote proxy. The SEC suspended Nova Finance Securities last Thursday March 26, 2009 after investigations uncovered unethical practices. The SEC investigation, Huhuonline learnt, triggered off another investigation into Afribank Registrars; accused of aiding and abetting the unethical practices by Nova Finance Securities. Sources within Afribank Registrars - who are registrar to AP plc - told Huhuonline that the SEC'S complaint rests on the failure of Afribank Registrars' internal control mechanism to detect or prevent the dubious transactions by Nova Finance Securities and that its records were falsified to cover up the illegal transactions. Aliko Dangote The suspension and fine of Nova Finances & Securities may not be evidence of the guilt of Afribank Registrars but it provides the clearest evidence of the complicity of the group of Dangote consortium partners in masterminding the fraud. After several months of denial, the suspension of Nova Finances is a very sad illustration of the way business is done in Nigeria and the mindless audacity of some people in authority like Dangote who remains vice-president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. (NSE) As pressure continues to mount, the race to succeed the embattled Dangote by those who believe-or perhaps know-that he be will axed, should he fail to resign, may have begun in earnest. And a few names have been touted. But, curiously, Dangote is yet to sever all his ties to Nova. CSCS document made available to Huhuonline revealed that during the period under review, Dangote and Nova with the assistance of Afribank Registrars fraudulently swapped a total volume of five hundred thousand units of irredeemable non-cumulative convertible preference shares in ten different transactions, which were admitted to the daily official lost of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The ensuing panic and loss of share value created a scary scenario for AP investors. The resultant effect was shareholders lost of confidence in AP shares, leading to a massive exodus of existing shareholders, who hurriedly offloaded their AP shares and precipitating a sharp decline in its price. Some of the former AP investors, who spoke to Huhuonline, said “they just wanted to get out of the investment, and had no regard for the price at which they sold”. Despite the fine and suspension of Nova Finance Securities, and the SEC’s threat to sanction operators caught on unethical practices especially, on insider and cross-share trading, it appears the warning is not being taken seriously as practitioners are engaged in premium price war in an attempt to edge out competitors. “Nova and Aliko were just crossing shares between themselves, there were no money exchanged; rather they were even loosing money by paying commissions for the swaps”, the chief executive of an investment firm told Huhuonline, adding: “the practice of cross-share trading is a common tactic within the industry. The SEC should not merely issue threats and small fines; it has the facts and profiles of all operators to ban or impose huge sanctions on those companies that are involved in these unorthodox practices but it has failed to do so.” The growing calls for his resignation from the NSE came hard on the heels of another unsavory development in the unfolding saga. The latest salvo involves a text message, currently making the rounds, and said to have been originated by Otedola. The text message, featuring the names of some married women who had allegedly engaged in extra-marital affairs with Dangote, was described by one source as Dangote’s “black box”. It contains information whose potential impact might cause considerable embarrassment to Dangote and some of his political allies, a source told Huhuonline. Dangote’s proxies have accused Otedola of employing blackmail and other crude underhand tactics to punch below the belt. But Otedola’s supporters have denied any involvement.
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